David Plankton
I AM HIM.
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2005
- Messages
- 6,077
I was listening to the podcast “You’re Dead To Me”, which is a light-hearted look at historical topics and in one episode there was mentioned the fact that Sir Christopher Wren had carved or chiselled his name onto one of the stones at Stonehenge. This might be well-known but it was the first time I had heard this and it reminded me of something else that I had noted recently and had been meaning to post here.
I looked online and found images of the inscription, one of which I’ve added below. I’ve also found that this gets a mention in a news article from 2011 posted on the Stonehenge Thread (page 14, post No. 392).
I’m sure you’d agree that this looks more like ‘I WREN’ than ‘C WREN’. One explanation I found was that the ‘I’ actually has a crossbar, making it a cruciform representation of ‘Christo’. The Wren family home is not far away from Stonehenge so you could argue that this could have been done by any one of them, or rather, one with the relevant initial. But having it done by Sir Christopher makes for a better story, and I’m happy to accept that it was him until someone proves otherwise.
The reason I found this particularly interesting was an inscription I saw on another stone circle. In December 2018, a friend and I visited Long Meg and Her Daughters stone circle in Cumbria. The Long Meg outlier stone is about ten to twelve feet tall and has faint spiral carvings along with this, presumably more modern addition -
I read this as either W J or W I SCOTT. There was of course a very famous W Scott but I have been unable to find any evidence for Sir Walter Scott having a middle name. There is however a link between him and these stones.
The legendary explanation for Long Meg is that they were once a coven of witches who were turned to stone by the scholar Michael Scot, who had a reputation as a magician. He is a fascinating character and has appeared in many works of fiction as well as “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”, a poem written by Sir Walter Scott. Also on the Wiki page -
tells us that Sir Walter had more than a passing interest in him and did quite a bit of research.
Did he carve his name on Long Meg though? Nice to believe he might have, he met his wife in Cumbria and was married at Carlisle and with his interest in the Michael Scot legend it’s not hard to imagine him wanting to visit. Anyway, it’s all a good excuse to post a few photos I took on the day.
I looked online and found images of the inscription, one of which I’ve added below. I’ve also found that this gets a mention in a news article from 2011 posted on the Stonehenge Thread (page 14, post No. 392).
I’m sure you’d agree that this looks more like ‘I WREN’ than ‘C WREN’. One explanation I found was that the ‘I’ actually has a crossbar, making it a cruciform representation of ‘Christo’. The Wren family home is not far away from Stonehenge so you could argue that this could have been done by any one of them, or rather, one with the relevant initial. But having it done by Sir Christopher makes for a better story, and I’m happy to accept that it was him until someone proves otherwise.
The reason I found this particularly interesting was an inscription I saw on another stone circle. In December 2018, a friend and I visited Long Meg and Her Daughters stone circle in Cumbria. The Long Meg outlier stone is about ten to twelve feet tall and has faint spiral carvings along with this, presumably more modern addition -
I read this as either W J or W I SCOTT. There was of course a very famous W Scott but I have been unable to find any evidence for Sir Walter Scott having a middle name. There is however a link between him and these stones.
The legendary explanation for Long Meg is that they were once a coven of witches who were turned to stone by the scholar Michael Scot, who had a reputation as a magician. He is a fascinating character and has appeared in many works of fiction as well as “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”, a poem written by Sir Walter Scott. Also on the Wiki page -
The date of Scot's death remains uncertain. The efforts of Walter Scott and others to identify him with the Sir Michael Scot of Balwearie, sent in 1290 on a special embassy to Norway, have not convinced historians, though the two may have had family connections.
tells us that Sir Walter had more than a passing interest in him and did quite a bit of research.
Did he carve his name on Long Meg though? Nice to believe he might have, he met his wife in Cumbria and was married at Carlisle and with his interest in the Michael Scot legend it’s not hard to imagine him wanting to visit. Anyway, it’s all a good excuse to post a few photos I took on the day.